Monday, May 12, 2008

Fuddruckers shares partial nutrition facts

Fuddruckers restaurants today shared with me for the first time a spreadsheet table with partial nutrition facts.

As one might expect, the beef alone in a half pound cheeseburger, not counting the cheese, dressing, or extras, has 660 kilocalories and 110% of the recommended daily value for saturated fat.

An email from Fuddruckers said the company will release nutrition facts in the future.

Hello Parke,

Thank you for your interest in our Fuddruckers products.

At this time, we do not have a formal nutritional guide available on our menu items; however, we are in the process of developing a nutrition guide.

Since we are in the process of developing our nutritional guide, we do have limited information available. Attached you will find our available nutritional information. Please note that some restaurants may receive products from an alternate vendor and the nutritional/ingredient information may vary.

We do recognize the importance and need for nutritional information on our menu items and we are hopeful that we will be able to provide our guests with this information in the near future....

Following the decision by Quiznos in November to release nutrition facts on the Quiznos corporate website, Fuddruckers was one of a small handful of remaining U.S. restaurant chains that would not share such information. Restaurant nutrition information is a significant public policy issue, because restaurants are exempted from the federal law that requires nutrition facts information for most other food sold in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration has recommended that restaurants share such information, but has no authority to mandate disclosure. States and municipalities have been stepping in to compensate for the absence of federal leadership.

From an economic perspective, information is essential for empowering consumers to defend their own interests in a free market. Under conditions of severe "information failure" in private markets, economists have no grounds for hoping that markets serve consumers well in the absence of government intervention.

I first heard that Fuddruckers might be sharing more nutrition facts information from an anonymous comment at U.S. Food Policy. Thanks anonymous commenter.